Parents, teachers anxious over exams
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The 25 appointed state high schools in the capital looked more like kindergartens on Monday morning, as flocks of parents stood at the gates, while their children sat a repeat national examination.
In front of SMU 28 in Ragunan, South Jakarta, a group of mothers shared their worries with each other, while the anxious faces of several fathers betrayed their efforts to appear indifferent.
More than 50 students from various high schools in the area, along with more than 4,800 others from all over the city, sat for the second time the Bahasa Indonesia test, which they failed in late June.
At 10 a.m., as students exited the school complex one after another, the group of people, who had been waiting for two hours, hurried to hear news of the exam.
A father -- who had taken the day off work -- patted his son on the shoulder in support as they walked to the car, while two teachers from a private school bombarded their students with questions.
"Are you sure it was all right? Was it difficult?" asked Hardi of one of his 42 students who were repeating the exam. His concern seemed greater than that of his students as they only replied with nods.
Most of the students said the exam they had just finished was easier than the one they failed. "Maybe the intensive drilling of the last few weeks helped them," said Hardi.
"I am glad it's over and done with. I want to start working soon," said Jody, one of Hardi's student who had to take time off work as an administrative clerk to sit the exam.
Hardi's students, along with some 750,000 others nationwide, are being given a second chance this week. The education ministry has allocated Rp 50 billion to fund the second round of examinations, after spending Rp 250 billion on the first one.
In Jakarta alone, 16.64 percent of the 122,154 students registered to sit the exams failed the first time around. The number of students failing doubled from 7 percent of 126,213 students last year.
In the repeats, students repeat exams for the subjects they failed out of the four compulsory subjects: Bahasa Indonesian on Monday (4,831 repeaters), English on Tuesday (11,391) and mathematics, economics or another foreign language on Wednesday (9,182).
"Today we are only seeing a few repeaters. But, tomorrow we will see more than 400 students from this area alone," said exam committee head Haryono, who oversaw 25 state and private high schools in the area on Monday.
Haryono said two of his school's students were repeating the exam. "One of them has already been accepted by the University of Indonesia, but had to drop the application since she had not yet repeated the test," he said.
Hosting the repeat national exams requires the school to provide empty classrooms, which means days off for the students, particularly on days when there are going to be a lot of exams.
"It is like a bonus for us to have an extra holiday," said Yuni, a student at SMU 28.
A bonus for Yuni, maybe, but this next couple of days will be stressful for the parents and teachers of students sitting the exams for a second time.(003)